Thursday, January 10, 2008

Winning Indonesia archers aim for more gold

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Matheos Viktor Messakh, The Jakarta Post, Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand

Indonesian archer I Gusti Nyoman Puruhito scored 115 points to best Earl Benjamin Yap of the Philippines in the men's individual compound final, giving Indonesia its first gold medal from the archery range in the SEA Games on Tuesday.

Gusti, popularly known as Adit, beat Myanmar Ye Min Swe in the semifinals before heading to the finals and defeating the Filipino by three points. Earlier this year, Gusti lost to Yap at the Asian Grand Prix in Bangkok.

In the other semifinal Ye defeated Vietnamese Nguyen Tin Cuong 116-111 to win the bronze.

"This is a big surprise for me because two years ago I only won the bronze. Moreover in the 70 meters qualification I only came in fourth," Gusti said after the match.

The 22-year-old said he was confident because the wind was not as bad as it was in the qualification round.

In the women's recurve individual category, Ika Yuliana and Rina Dewi Puspitasari set up an all-Indonesian final where Ika took the gold medal, 107-101.

The bronze went to Thailand's Chutinan Sakulchai who bested Ambarasi Subramaniam of Malaysia.

Two other Indonesian archers Dellie Threesyadinda, competing in the women's compound individual, and Rahmat Sulistya, competing in men's recurve individual, won the silver and bronze, respectively.

In the women's compound individual, Filipino Amaya Paz won the gold while Myanmar's Ngeain Aung took the bronze. In the men's recurve individual, the gold and silver went to Malaysians Cheng Chu Sian and Wan Abd Khalmizam.

Indonesia's team manager Denny Trisjanto was optimistic the archers could exceed the two-gold medal target as they still had a chance to win in the men's compound team and women's recurve team.

"We might have some surprises tomorrow," he said.

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